


Snow

by SoraMJigen



Category: Steam Powered Giraffe
Genre: Humanity, Snow, Snowball Fight, Stars, Technology, Walter Manor, Winter, inventions, long overdue fic, on top of the universe, the spine wants to be human
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-19
Updated: 2016-01-19
Packaged: 2018-05-14 21:25:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 5,694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5759413
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SoraMJigen/pseuds/SoraMJigen
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Peter Walter VI has something that might take The Spine one step closer to humanity.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Snow

**Author's Note:**

> So it snowed yesterday and it reminded me of how I should finish this fic because I started writing it back in December. Welp, it's done now. It would have been done sooner but work and the holidays tend to suck your time up like a transparent vampire. Anyway, enjoy and thanks for reading! And I'll be working on my other fics incredibly soon.

Colonel Walter would have been shocked at what his sixth generation son crafted one blustery, wintry day in his workshop. It was so innovative and exciting that he decided to keep it a secret for a while. Only the Walters girl, QWERTY, and Bebop knew of the secret that he had finally crafted to perfection. They dared not said a word to any of the automatons – that is until Peter Walter VI needed a test subject. He couldn’t experiment the new gadget on himself because he did not possess the body that the bots did. He was a man of flesh and bone and he already had the ability that the device had. 

Rabbit and Hatchworth’s workings were rather old, especially Rabbit’s. Yet it was a matter of their personalities and both bots enjoyed being metal men (and women). The Spine on the other hand, Peter knew, was grateful to be “alive” – walking and talking and singing and playing and living the best a bot could. But there were days when Peter would catch him attempting to be human through his expressions and movements. He couldn’t blame The Spine for being so curious and wanting to try out a new identity which in turn aided to his personality. The Spine always had a rather cool, calm, level headed personality which gave way to silliness by means of his brother and sister. Peter VI accepted him for who he was, even when he was attempting to be human or at least grasp the concept of humanity.

So it would be The Spine who would be perfect for this venture should the robot willingly choose to go along with it. Peter was not a forceful person and if The Spine chose not to receive his latest invention, then he would understand. Next to Rabbit, The Spine had the most updated parts. Rabbit had just received her silver appearance covering her old, inner workings. Peter Walter VI did not want to add new technology to her as she was still getting used to her upgrades. Hatchworth didn’t seem to mind his lack of humanity and with these reasons, Peter Walter VI prompted The Spine to enter his lab on a dark winter night. 

The moon had just awakened and rose when the silvery automaton was visited by Walter Girl Breanna who informed him that Peter Walter VI wished to see him in that moment. Leaving H.G.Wells’ “The Time Machine” book marked, The Spine set off to the laboratory and found it rather odd that he couldn’t just page him over the Walter Wifi. Though whatever it was, The Spine believed it couldn’t be all that bad. A secret perhaps, a strange secret at that, in that Peter could not contact him over the method everyone else used in this manor. His stride seemed to take him there quicker than he had anticipated, his mind wrapped in curiosity and confusion as to what Peter had in mind. 

Upon entering the lab, the light was dim as usual with the slab shimmering beneath it. Peter had cleaned it after the last maintenance check and upgrade. Through the light, Peter’s keyhole mask stared at The Spine in a way that seemed observant, watching the silver man as he stood before the slab, waiting to be given instruction. He always was incredibly obedient, so much so that he wouldn’t even sneak out of Walter Manor like Hatchworth or Rabbit.

“Spine, take a seat.” Peter spoke through the mask and The Spine pulled up a work bench, sitting himself just in front of Peter. There should never be any distance between an inventor and his creations (well, in this case handed down creations that helped raise him in the past and continued a growing platonic and familial relationship). 

As much as Peter was always in the lab, it was more so studying the nature of Blue Matter and the endless newsfeed of the Internet. However, there was never a time when something wasn’t on his mind in regard of how to improve things. How to improve the Walter Wifi, how to make access to Taco Tower easier, how to keep the appliances away from Rabbit, how to enhance the bots. His mind was always working and thinking – something ‘Pappy’ would have been proud of. 

Peter had managed to craft a few inventions so far. While they were geared towards the manor, there were some he crafted out of his own curiosity. This invention was merely out of Peter’s own experimentation – to see how he could incorporate a human sense into technology. While he believed he had succeeded (having taken gratuitous amounts of time for research based on medical reports of this particular human sense, notes from the robot’s construction, and their upgraded systems), he could only wait to see how it fully functioned and worked. Only then would he decide if it was a success or not. 

“Spine, I have something for you.” The man with the keyhole mask spoke and The Spine arched his eyebrow in confusion and curiosity – much like a human. 

Peter stepped away from his workshop desk, revealing what appeared to be incredibly thin silvery hands lined with a thin chip at where the wrist would begin. Another chip rested just before the display and The Spine’s photoreceptors zoomed in to take a closer look. He dared not touch the devices before him – they seemed rather fragile and The Spine examined them with his photoreceptors. He tried to register them in his systems but only the words ‘chip’ and ‘hands’ emerged. He would need more information to fully process what these things were exactly and looking over at Peter who watched The Spine with rapt attention. That keyhole mask didn’t exactly give away all of Peter’s emotions and when it did, it was rather subtle. There was still some humanity to the man despite what had happened to cause his face to be completely covered.

“Peter, what are those?”

“They’re sensors designed to feel things that only humans can.” The Spine’s eyebrows fully arched in surprise, possibilities flooding his head and nearly overrunning his circuitry.

“With these sensors you can experience what a human would feel through their hands – temperature, texture, and a ton of other things. They won’t affect your musical abilities at all, so you’ll still be able to tune and play your instruments just fine. I only did the hands because everything else might be a pain. I haven’t worked with olfactory or taste buds as of yet.”

The Spine liked the word ‘yet’ – it gave way to a future of endless possibilities. 

“But, as seeing you like humanity and are possibly the most human of the bots, I figured I’d let you give these bad boys a go.”

“Peter, you know I like how I am.” The Spine retorted, worried how his friend and inventor would now view him and what he would think of him. The Spine was a punctual bot who always cared about his appearance and what he had said. While he had never spoken of his human like antics, he now secretly wondered if Peter had taken notice. What felt like guilt rushed through where his heart would be and his eyes sunk as though the feeling weighed them down.

“Spine, I know that,” Peter started reassuringly. If he could smile he would, but all he could do was lay a calming hand on his friend’s shoulder. The Spine’s eyes looked toward the hand and nodded softly in understanding. From the corner of his eye, he watched as Peter relaxed his lanky form and ran his other hand through his messy blonde strands. 

“You and your siblings share such humanity. I don’t know if it’s cause you’ve been around people for so long or if it’s something Pappy programmed into you. But Spine, you seem to have the most humanity in how you act and how you are and well – that’s you and it’s all good. It’s why I’m giving you the chance to test out something that we humans have that you don’t.”

The Spine watched Peter as he withdrew his hand and waited for his friend to decide. Somehow, Peter knew of how humanly The Spine acted at times and the bot began to wonder if he should attempt to hide that more often. He also wondered who else saw it and what they thought of him. Clearly, his brother and sister would have said something to him or in the least the Walter Girls or the other band members or just anyone who knew him well enough to know that he was acting in a way that didn’t seem like him. So why, he now wondered, had no one informed him? Or perhaps it really had blended into his personality so well as Peter said and if this were true, it would possibly mean that everyone had accepted him for who he was, even if he sometimes imitated antics of a living, breathing, person.

Looking to the hands once more, The Spine had trusted Peter in his inventions and what he was doing and knew what to do. The Spine supposed that there was no harm in trying these sensors out and if it brought him a step closer to what he secretly wished for, then what was there to lose? Besides, he would feel even worse if he allowed Peter’s invention go to waste. 

“Peter,” The Spine started once more, the guilt seemingly slowly fading from him. “I would like to do this.”

If Peter could grin, he would. He would grin so widely that it would stretch from ear to ear like the Cheshire cat. But sadly he couldn’t due to the keyhole mask and so at best, he allowed his shoulders to slump in relaxation for a brief moment before beginning to inform The Spine of the details. Relaxation changed to business as it had done with many others before regarding Walter Robotics, the bots, their upgrades, and other topics that Peter deemed incredibly important. The air in the lab seemed to grow dense with tension as though The Spine was refraining from breathing steam, curious as to what the upgrade would entail.

“Now the upgrade will take some time. The difficult part will be inserting the FEELS chip.”

“How difficult will it be?”

“Well…I have to go into your neural systems and insert this where your partial lobe should be.” Peter pointed to where the lobe would be within his brain and The Spine nodded in understanding. He had enough biology lessons from the wars and his own personal curiosity to know where what lobes rested and their functions.

“That way the touch sensors will register with the chip and elicit a response from you. The upgrade in total should take about two hours.”

The Spine knew Peter VI was a careful sort especially when working with his bots. He also knew that he hated going under for any sort of maintenance or upgrade because sometimes his mind would give way to old war memories – most of which he didn’t want to remember. But he acknowledged that in order to be fixed so that he performed his best that he would have to endure being offline and unconscious for lengths of time. While this would be no different, he still wasn’t looking forward to possibly seeing those dark times in his head. The memories wouldn’t normally surface unless The Spine was under a ton of stress, was feeling incredibly angered, or depressed. Today The Spine was feeling rather good – having just tapped into a fantastic book and was now about to get an upgrade that would take him one step closer to humanity. There was no way those memories would resurface and he reassured himself of that as he nodded in understanding.

“Are you ready?” Peter asked with every ounce of seriousness in his tone and The Spine nodded in confirmation. Gesturing him to the slab of steel, The Spine lied down and allowed Peter Walter VI to begin the process.

\------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Two hours seemed to fly by. In the dark subconscious of The Spine’s mind no memories stirred, his brain too overridden by elation of Peter’s invention. Relief had swept over him for that and when he had awakened, he felt something new turning in his brain.

“How do you feel?” Peter questioned with concern and The Spine’s photoreceptors blinked, adjusting to the light of the room and the new sensation reeling in his head.

“Something…is registering itself in my head. Would that be the FEELs chip?”

“Yeah. Trust me, it’s a good thing. It means it’s just getting used to your systems. Do your hands hurt?”

Looking down at his palms, The Spine’s eyes widened slightly and a smile tugged at his lips. Where his palms were once black as the night, they were now as silver as the rest of him. They glimmered in the dim lab light and almost reflected The Spine’s face. He moved his fingers and the new invention moved with them. It was as though he gained a second skin and his photoreceptors were recognizing them. ‘Palms’, ‘silver’, ‘sensors’, ‘silver sensor palms’, ‘installed by Peter Walter VI on December 2nd, 2015 at 7:30 pm’. These phrases and words flashed in his head and The Spine understood and smirked. In a way they were like an early Christmas present and The Spine wondered if Peter had that intention. 

“No. They feel fine, actually.” The Spine returned with his smooth tone which calmed Peter. 

“K then, let’s test them out.” Peter removed an oil stained glove and presented his hand, stretching his fingers. 

“Feel my hand. Tell me what it feels like.”

The Spine’s fingers curled, not wanting to hurt his master should his grip be too strong (he was told he had a strong grip). His fingers flexed as he hesitantly reached forward and ran a fingertip along Peter’s fingers.

“Warm…a bit sweaty.” The Spine spoke without hesitation and Peter nodded. 

“Sorry,” Peter nervously retorted, but The Spine was too fascinated by the sensation of feeling. 

The Spine’s photoreceptors widened and he took Peter’s whole hand in his palm. Not only could he feel Peter’s pulse pounding against his circuitry, but he also felt the contrast of how heated Peter’s palm was against his own. The Spine’s palm was cold and just awakening to its new use. His other palm pressed against the steel slab beneath him and he felt how lifeless it was when compared to Peter.

“Freezing.” The Spine said as he ran his fingers over the metal beneath him. His hand retracted from Peter and the keyhole mask watched the automaton slowly feel his way around the lab like a child learning their senses. His sensory hands fell upon different objects, reciting their feel to Peter who watched him like an overprotective parent. With every sensation The Spine proclaimed, the wider Peter’s grin would have grew. Instead, he watched his creation intently marvel at his new upgrade and how he managed to feel everything in his range. His fingers retracted at what appeared to be some well contained acid in a sealed beaker and only then did he turn to look at Peter with widened photoreceptors and a grin that reminded Peter of a boy who had received everything he wanted for Christmas. Inside, the inventor couldn’t be happier and in seeing this in The Spine’s face he nodded while his heels refrained from bouncing, too focused on The Spine.

“Peter,” The Spine was at a loss for words, something The Spine was never known for. “This-this is wonderful! Thank you!”

“No prob. Just keep me posted on how they run, k? I want to make sure they work well.”

“Yes, sir.” The Spine spoke with seriousness and nodded before striding out of the lab. His hands ran across the wall, the wood felt smooth to the touch. Smirking softly, he knew what stories the wood held of all the days in Walter Manor, watching each generation of Walter grow into a fine young man, the arrival and departure of Walter Girls and bandmates. His thumb tripped over a knick in the wall and he smiled, it was a rough cut into the house much like a scratch on a person’s skin. But this knick was where Rabbit thought it would be a good idea to playfully pillow fight with Jon in the hallway. Granted, it was in the days that she was a he and was just as spry with new parts. Still, it was a happy memory and The Spine remembered how Rabbit pulled him into the feathery brawl. Only did Peter break it up, fearful of the robots damaging each other only to sigh to himself alongside his wife who chided that “boys would be boys”.

His photoreceptors fell upon the large window that gave way to the world outside Walter Manor. The night was full with darkness that blotted out the place where the sun lingered. Even the stars seemed so distant, much more distant than ever, but what seemed so close made the glass cold and foggy. White stuff gathered in the corners of the glass and The Spine instantly knew what he wanted to feel next. 

He had seen this white substance in the wars many years past. He remembered how soft it seemed and how, when Rabbit and The Jon played around in it, they didn’t shiver like the humans did. It was so strange and The Spine found himself feeling alienated from its supposed coldness. He knew he should have been like his brothers – diving in and frolicking around in the snow, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Not until Rabbit threw a snowball at him anyway – then he was enticed. There were some days though when they found corpses in the ivory blanket or the snow stained with blood from a gruesome battle. Those were signs of danger to come and there would be no time for frolicking or lightheartedness.

The Spine had seen it in a movie somewhere where a girl in white softly spinning in her yard, her hand stretched feeling that sensation of snow fall onto it. It was a night much like this and The Spine’s eyes looked about, wondering if anyone was there watching him. As much as he enjoyed having his siblings and friends around, there were times when he wanted to be left alone to his devices. This moment was one of those and besides, he wanted to surprise Hatchworth and Rabbit with his new sensors. Maybe they would get them in the future – The Spine only hoped. Slowly striding into the yard, the ivory flakes fell upon the garden – transforming their faded hues into bright whites beneath the velvet sky. While the sight of snow was nothing new to him, he couldn’t help but to smile in knowing that he could now feel the powdery winter wonder. Extending a slender hand into the darkness overhead, he raised the silver palm to the night.

The first flake fell onto the silvery palms that Peter Walter VI had just installed onto The Spine’s dark hands. The Spine felt his mind stir in what felt like…what was it humans called it, ‘awe’, he believed, was the correct term. Awe in that this little speck of ivory could make his fingers twitch gently from how cold it was and how the sensation seemingly stuck with him even as the flake melted. It was even more incredible in how the palms worked – registering this new, wondrous feeling, processing it into the chip inserted in his wrist, and sending the meaning and signal to the other chip located in his brain. The chip used his head like a search engine, seeking out the proper word to say to describe the snowflake now melting in his palm. Should a word not be located it would enter a word from its own dictionary and program it into The Spine’s internal dictionary. The wonders of technology had never really phased The Spine (after all they were considered technological wonders when they were first created), but this, this was an exception.

“Cold.”

The word uttered from his dark lips, understanding what this little now melted flake had made him feel. The word came from his own internal dictionary strengthened by all the years he read and all the years Colonel Water taught him to read. ‘Cold’ he remembered that word; it was from a book about snow, he read it in his first year of creation. A one year old Spine who was never believed to have the sense of touch and to only feel things without knowing their texture. Back then, he was only an automaton designed to win the heart of a woman who died without ever meeting The Spine, sending his master into quiet nights of sobbing in the lab. Even when he tried to reassure Peter back then, he couldn’t feel the damp shoulder sleeve that his master had used to shed tears upon. All he felt was something like physical static – something bearing no texture, but it was physical, and was able to be felt. He could never discern the state of the fabric or any physical thing during those years.

But now, now he could. Of course he had felt pain during the war when he was dissected by captors and blown to shreds by opponents and those were sensations he never wished to feel again. But this feeling, this pleasant little kiss of cold, was something far more different and slightly comforting than the shrapnel blasts of war.

His photoreceptors blinked as another flake fell onto the silver palm. Another flake fell, another blink of his photoreceptors and he saw from the pictures in his head that indeed no two snowflakes were alike yet they both produced the same small chill.

The Spine grinned at their individuality.

It reminded him of him and his siblings; they were unique in their own ways yet they produced the same beautiful music. Could he even write a song about this? About being one step closer to humanity in how these falling flakes made him feel? He couldn’t even think of a melody or harmony as his grin stretched wide with all the happiness he could muster. His stride seemingly broke as he took to running through these flakes and while he could not feel them on the rest of his silver chassis, there was something overwhelming him. Some sort of elation that he hadn’t felt in a while and steam ran from his spine and face vents, melting the snowflakes falling behind. Sometimes he would suddenly stop, his feet rooting to themselves to the ground as he held out his hands to the sky only to be coated in more flakes. Had anyone seen him, they would have sworn he was like a boy who was discovering snow for the first time.

The Spine hadn’t even noticed that by now he had entered the gardens of Walter Manor, too enraptured in his fun. The world was starting to look the same, all doused in white like a bride and just as beautiful. He wasn’t even panting and looking over his shoulder, he noticed how far he had run. From the back door, through the maze’s entrance and outward, he noticed how his footsteps were slowly being filled with snow. His grin hadn’t left him and kneeling down, he cupped two handfuls of the snow in his hands. The sensation reeling in his hands and making his fingers tremble as steam rose from his face vents. Quickly rising, he threw the wintry flakes up into the air as they fell about him and he allowed himself to be dragged down by their miniscule weight, laughing all the way.

On the ground he felt weightless, allowing his palms to sink into the white, chilly blanket around him. His fingers stopped trembling at their touch, now accustomed to the sensation that still reeled through his palms. Although the palms easily adapted to the touch of snow, The Spine still found himself in disbelief that he was a tiny bit closer to doing what humans did and feeling things and experiencing what each thing was. He could now discern textures and temperatures and convey how they made him feel. Had he a heart it would be thrumming like a hummingbird’s wings by now, never stopping, never pausing to halt that grin on his silver face. Though of course, the cogs in his mind began to turn and wonder how Peter Walter VI chose him and why. The Spine did act the most human when compared to his siblings and while he knew how to hide his “humanity”, he felt as though it did slip up sometimes during his normal routine. Perhaps Peter had seen his attempted ways of being human and figured that it would be best for him to try these sensor palms in bridging a slight gap between automaton and human. The Spine would always be an automaton catered for music and (God forbid) return to combat, this he knew. To have a shred of humanity though wouldn’t be so bad and would fulfill his wish to becoming human. He knew Peter Walter VI couldn’t transform The Spine into a fully-fledged human – he wasn’t that kind of doctor. Besides, The Spine was comfortable with being an automaton and was even thankful for being brought to life by the inventive hands of the Walter lineage.

The soft coldness held him in the world like a magnet to a fridge and incredibly his mechanical mannerisms hadn’t collapsed. The Spine was built to be the more advanced and stronger than Rabbit or Hatchworth or even The Jon. He could easily wade through the water of the rice paddies, the snow of the French winters, and even the roughest of winds in Chicago. The Spine was a step in advancement and the second bot Colonel had created. Rabbit was the first – the baby prototype who changed into a fully functional being. She (at the time he) was a complete success and thus opened Colonel’s mind to experimenting with other materials like silver and titanium which gave way to The Spine. Hatchworth was hastily built for the war, taking the stove from Walter Manor and transforming it into a soldier fit for victory and destruction. Hatchworth was a bit sturdier than Rabbit and his mechanisms didn’t falter in most rough conditions. Rabbit on the other hand had older workings and would sometimes malfunction in tougher environments, but for the most part, she (he) did rather well on the battle front. The leveled ground was perfect for her – the water, was not and neither was snow. Thankfully she had been upgraded in due time to withstand rough conditions.

“On a shooting star,” The Spine whispered to himself, mused by the flakes that continued to fall on his frame and around him. He swore he felt as though he were on top of the universe with how the world slowly succumbed to a beautiful white wonderland. His photoreceptors took note of every snowflake – of each individual speck falling to the earth and joining those who had fallen and changed the world around him from evergreen bliss to white wonderland.

“Life is so wonderful and everything is by far,” he murmured to himself in the song’s harmony, his grin never leaving his face.

The brim of his fedora had blocked out the sight before his eyes, the snow pushing it upward onto his forehead and over his photoreceptors. Snow seeped into his ebony wig and he knew that it would be dried later on. He would have to be careful about the possible dampness interfering with the systems in the Hall of Wires. Water and electricity, let alone wires, were not a pleasant mixture. At best he could probably blow dry the wig (if Rabbit hadn’t kidnapped the blow dryer and taken it to her tea party) before entering the H.O.W. for his “sleep” stasis.

Pushing the brim back on his fedora, his photoreceptors blinked and widened some at the sight before him.

“So spectacular…” Granted, The Spine had seen the stars before. He had ventured to space with his siblings, he had often stared at the stars whenever they presented themselves to him, and he had read a great deal of information regarding them. However, there was a difference of staring at the stars through windows and only being so close to them in space without the ship acting as a divider between celestial and metal. But to be on the Earth, lying in the snow, beneath a star ridden snowy evening was something strange and endearing.

The universe was expansive and vast and when compared to life on Earth (let alone other planets) it made people feel so miniscule. That they were nothing more than crafted stardust meat bags with bones rattling about inside and while The Spine did not have that, he did know that feeling. Of the overbearing dark nights weighing down on his frame as though the night and the world were compressing him to create a metallic nature sandwich. He was stuck in the middle staring with awe at how the universe could be so grand while the forces pressed against him and making him feel as though he were like the humans of this world – so small, so insignificant, but so damn wonderful.

He swore the wheels in his head fell to silence, looking through his eyes and seeing how seemingly Ursa Minor and Ursa Major frolicked in the falling snow, a mother and child bear running through the night. How The Big Dipper and Little Dipper seemed to capture the flakes and how they spilled over the sides like an over-filled bathtub. How the moon was absent and missing this beautiful display of silence and snow. Other stars twinkled and his photoreceptors absorbed their glow, while his mind attempted to connect stars to create new constellations. One was in the shape of a jackalope, another a piece of cake, another a tea cup. He had seen these stars before and was so close in space that he could touch them, but even then, they were still so far away. No matter how much he could stretch his hand to them, they would still tumble from his grasp or simply be too far.

“Oh Spiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiine,” Rabbit called across the yard, her photoreceptors finding his body in the snow. From what she could read his condition was normal, if not well and that relieved the slight worry in her head that something might have fatally been wrong with her brother.

“Rabbit!” The Spine abruptly stood.

“I’m sorry, I thought you were-“ He could have sworn Rabbit was in “sleep” stasis or off having a tea party with the kitchen appliances while Steve tried to stop her. The Spine was too wrapped up in his new sensors to even take notice of what Rabbit or even Hatchworth were doing.

“Y-y-y-you big goof.”

He arched an eyebrow.

“You think y-y-y-you can-can get a-away from a sn-sn-snowball fight?” The Rabbit grinned and The Spine’s face softened, his face of concern diminished by that joyful grin again as Rabbit quickly threw together a snowball and chucked it at him.

It collided with his shoulder and he fell back laughing and catching his balance as steam unfurled from his vents. His fedora hid his photoreceptors once more and failed to quickly register Hatchworth bolting alongside of him. The sound of crunching snow could be detected and swiftly turning his head, he saw Hatchworth launch a snowball that was far larger than what Rabbit had thrown, at The Spine. The Spine immediately dropped to his knees and rolled, his old war movements kicking in, but so gracefully evaded the mass of snow that instead it hit Rabbit. Sharply looking up, The Spine slyly grinned as only Rabbit’s widened photoreceptors glowed through the snow. Her body stood rigid as though she had been frozen in time and Hatchworth’s photoreceptors widened in shock at how he missed his target when he planned the strike so accurately. Rabbit’s hands slowly rose to her face and in one fell swoop eliminated the snow from her frame, while some flakes clung to her outfit.

“H-Hatchy…” Rabbit started in a slightly dark tone that caused Hatchworth to reel on his heels and stumble some.

“I am sorry, Rabbit, I meant to hit The Spine.” His factual tone was tinged with worry as he fumbled backwards and Rabbit slowly started to approach him. A maddening grin gradually developed on her face as she rolled together a snowball bigger than her head and locked on Hatchworth as her target. The Spine knew he was out of sight as he quickly made a snowball and chucked it at Rabbit’s head.

While this would have been regarded as an unwise move, The Spine knew how much trouble Hatchworth was in for missing his target. Rabbit froze and looked at The Spine, her glowing orbs changing target as she chucked the larger than life snowball at him. Taking the huge snowball, he felt it collide with his chassis and his hands fumble through the material. His hands trembled at the feeling, but he adored it as he fell on his spine with a large puff of steam and laughter. His laughter tore through Rabbit’s maddening glare and grin as she smiled softly and laughed alongside her brother and Hatchworth joined in.

From the highest window of Walter Manor, Peter Walter VI looked down upon the bots as they flung snow at each other and laughed beneath the starry, snow filled sky. If he could, he would grin at the success of his invention and how The Spine seemed so much more human than what he was before. He wouldn’t need a physical transformation of skin and bone and blood, but perhaps, more technology upgrades to make him feel like something he wanted to be.


End file.
